She soon,
however, found that the short, sweet grasses of the forest glades were
much more to her taste than any leaves or stringy twigs. But the lily
roots which her foster mother taught her to pull from the muddy lake
bottom, as they wallowed luxuriously side by side in the cool water,
defying flies and heat, suited her admirably. The great black moose
bulls--hornless at this season and fat and amiable as sheep--regarded
her with a reserved curiosity; and the moose calves, the strangeness of
her form and color once worn off, treated her with great respect.
Though she was so much smaller and lighter than they, her quickness on
her feet and her extremely handy way of butting made her easily master
of them all. Even the supercilious young cow who had been so
disagreeable to her at first grew indifferently friendly, and all was
peace around the secluded little lake.
"Late one afternoon, however, when the shadows were getting long and
black across the forest glades, the peace was momentarily broken. The
calf was pasturing in one of the glades, while her foster mother was
wallowing and splashing down among the lilies. A bear creeping up
through the thickets so noiselessly that not even a sharp-eyed
chick-a-dee or a vigilant red squirrel took alarm, peered out between
the branches and saw the calf.
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